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Couple transforms their 1910 Amana home into B&B

Amid seven villages full of historic homes with sandstone or cedar siding exteriors, the Cinder Block House at 2503 K St. in Middle Amana is true to its name. It was built with concrete blocks and is the only one like it in the colonies.

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Amid seven villages full of historic homes with sandstone or cedar siding exteriors, the Cinder Block House at 2503 K St. in Middle Amana is true to its name. It was built with concrete blocks and is the only one like it in the colonies.

"We've been told it's the newest of the old Amana homes," explains Mark Lafferty, who with his wife Luona, owns and operates the business. "It was built in 1910. The story is a woman from Amana married a man from Marengo who was in the concrete business."

The blocks were poured on-site and each weighs up to 80 pounds. Aside from its unique exterior, the home retains traditional Amana architectural features, including post and beam construction, nine-over-six-pane windows, four-panel doors, old Amana locks and original fir floors.

The Laffertys moved to Middle Amana in 2010, and when the historic property across the street from them was sold at a foreclosure auction in 2012, they bought it even though they didn't know what they were going to do with it.

"We'd gone over and looked at the house," Luona said. "We felt it had a lot of potential."

Two years later, that potential has been recognized. The Laffertys opened the Cinder Block House bed and breakfast in late July.

Preserving this piece of history was one of the reasons the couple decided to turn the home into a bed and breakfast in spite of having no previous experience in the hospitality business.

"We had laughed about turning our home into a bed and breakfast when we retired," Luona says. "We hadn't even been to a bed and breakfast before. We asked ourselves if we were going to stay somewhere, what would we want it to be like? We let that be our guide."

Luona had worked for Pearson at Iowa City before her position was eliminated. Although losing her job was an unwelcome surprise, it allowed her to devote herself full time to overseeing the home's renovations.

"I had always worked in the professional world," she says. "This gave me a chance to step away from the corporate scene and become an innkeeper."

Mark, who also worked at Pearson before his job was cut, continues to look for a new job while helping Luona as an innkeeper at the Cinder Block House. The couple continues to live in their own private home across the street, enjoying the short commute to welcome guests to the bed and breakfast and to prepare the morning meal.

During the two-year remodeling and restoration process, the Laffertys worked to maintain the historical integrity of the house while updating it to meet the needs of a bed and breakfast. The house had served as a single family home for the last 25 years and before that, had been a multigenerational home in the tradition of the Amana Colonies. Time had caught up with it and it was in need of many repairs.

"It had good bones," Luona says, "but it needed a lot of work."

At one point, water had run from a second floor bathroom through the first floor and into the basement, accumulating to a depth of 4 feet before it was discovered. Although the water had been pumped out before the Lafferty's bought the property, they still had to deal with the damage it left behind.

Keeping the home's history and tradition in mind, they worked to restore it as closely as possible to the original floor plan, but a number of changes had already taken place through the years.

"Keep in mind, a house of this age had already been remodeled several times, so we're not really sure what the original floor plan was," Mark said.

Some of the previous tenants' remodeling was obvious: bathrooms had been created by walling off corners of a room and closets had been built in such ways that doors leading from room to room often meant entering and exiting through closets. After a lot of deconstruction to tear out old fixtures, the couple began blending old and new to create comfortable spaces for their guests.

A new roof and new windows were installed. Five new bathrooms were added. Some walls were removed and the configuration of the rooms was changed slightly. The home's original fir floors were refinished. New drywall was hung and painted and repairs were made to existing plaster walls.

The exterior of the home got a makeover, too, as trees and shrubs were trimmed so the structure's namesake cinder blocks became visible. Mark power-washed the exterior and tuckpointing restored some of the crumbling mortar between the blocks.

"The trees and shrubs were really overgrown," Mark said. "It was hard to see the house from the street. The trees were so overgrown that not much light came in, and then the inside walls were painted dark colors, which made it worse."

Luona decorated the rooms with a modern farmhouse style that blends new and antique furnishings with clean, crisp colors on the walls and linens.

"We tried to make it easy on ourselves and bought the same bathroom fixtures and ceramic tiles for each bathroom, but I still ended up painting each one a different color," Luona says.

The beds and furniture are new, Luona said, while the wooden furnishings are antiques found in shops to garage sales to Craigslist. The spacious rooms accommodate king-sized beds and each guest room includes a flat-screen HDTV and Wi-Fi access. The rooms are numbered with metal cow ear tags for a touch of whimsy.

The couple did much of the work themselves, assisted by Mark's father, a veteran of the construction business.

A two-room suite with a full bath, the breakfast room and a commercial kitchen occupy the first floor. Three bedrooms, each with its own full bath, a common room and kitchenette are located on the second floor. Since the Laffertys do not live on the property, they are required to have a health-inspected kitchen for preparing food on the premises. A kitchenette on the second floor provides guests with a refrigerator, microwave oven and Keurig machine.

Luoana cooks breakfast for guests each morning and serves a menu that focuses on local, artisan and organic food. Products from the nearby Hahn Bakery and Amana Meatshop round out food prepared on site.

Guests can relax on a screened porch or enjoy the tranquility of Middle Amana on the patio overlooking the home's half-acre lawn. Although some area bed and breakfasts pride themselves on being within walking distance of shops and attractions, the couple point out the Cinder Block House is happy to provide an escape from the bustle and traffic.

The Laffertys are enjoying their adventure as innkeepers. Their first guests came July 31 and since then, business has been encouraging, with multiple bookings for the future, including being full on Oktoberfest weekend.

"We've had a really positive response," she says. "We've met the most fantastic people."

"We don't have any ties to this area, but the people here have been supportive and encouraging," Mark said.

They plan to be open year-round. During the slower winter months, they hope to expand the business by offering the Cinder Block House as a site for meetings, bridal showers, luncheons, family reunions and similar events. The commercial kitchen will allow private chefs to come in and prepare meals for small gatherings, using the building beyond a bed and breakfast capacity.

Melinda Wichmann is the family news editor for the Marengo Pioneer-Republican and the Williamsburg Journal Tribune. She can be reached at mwichmann@gannett.com or 319-642-5506.